


The Overpowered Fighter

by rhapshie



Series: AoKagaAo oneshots [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: 6969 words you know it gon be good, M/M, MMORPGs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:48:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25419466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhapshie/pseuds/rhapshie
Summary: Kagami can't stand Aomine's guts.But Panther? Panther is great. 11/10 would marry. Chef's kiss. Perfection.AKA the kinda-maybe-not-really-isekai AU that no one asked for.
Relationships: Aomine Daiki/Kagami Taiga
Series: AoKagaAo oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841209
Comments: 11
Kudos: 96





	The Overpowered Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> I'VE HAD THIS SITTING ON MY DRAFT FOR 2 MONTHS
> 
> Also this is based on that April's Fool Fantasy!AU KnB official art.

Fighter was practically a joke class.

Their vitality stats were among the highest but everything else were laughable. You'd think they'd make up for their lacklustre stats with amazing skillset. Nope. Everyone was pretty sure the devs forgot about their existence.

_Then how the hell is this guy so stupidly strong?_

Kagami cursed when the fighter he encountered roundhouse kicked him into the ground. Not even his fully upgraded weapon could make a dent in the guy's tough skin. Coming into this free-for-all PvP session, he thought he'd be able to crush everyone with his shiny new gear, but this lone fighter just single-handedly took down his small team.

"Off to the respawn with you." A cocky grin was shot his way as the fighter with the dark blue hair cracked his knuckles and gave Kagami one last blow that sent him right onto the defeat screen.

"Aaargh!" The redhead slammed his labrys onto the ground, practically making a crater. Behind him, Himuro and Kuroko sat calmly while watching the rest of the round on a gigantic floating monitor in the air. "How did he beat all three of us? He's a damn fighter, for god's sake!"

Kuroko, the dedicated healer frowned at Kagami. "It's because you forgot about me and let him take me down first. How many times do I have to explain that berserkers have awful survavibility without a support?"

The party's mechanic Himuro chuckled next to Kuroko. "Look, he just killed the last guy," He pointed at the screen where a slow-motion of the fighter was displayed. "He's so tanky and fast. You think he dual classes as an assassin?"

"Perhaps more levels as an assassin?" Kuroko muttered, fascinated. "Kagami-kun, if you can fight like him, then maybe you can start charging in by yourself. But you are bad, so please try to stick with the group."

"I'm not _bad_. He's just too good!" Kagami pointed at the screen where the fighter called Panther stood, arms crossed and cocky. "God, he reminds me of that asshole."

"Aomine-kun?" Upon closer inspection, yeah, Kuroko could see the resemblance in the avatar. Dark blue hair, slanted eyebrows and bronze-tinted skin.

"Just hearing his name makes me wanna kill some boss monsters." The redhead growled before throwing himself on the rock and leaning his back against Himuro's.

"Thought you two get along." He laughed.

"What!? No way. No way." The audacity! All they ever did was argue. One time after their big match in the NBA finals, Kagami almost got into a controversy for how close he came to breaking Aomine's stupid nose. Good thing Kuroko stopped him.

"I think so too, Himuro-kun. Kagami-kun might say that he strongly dislikes Aomine-kun, but I know that he is secretly fond of him." The healer said as he checked through his equipment, then scrolled down the guild member list.

"Are you kidding me, Kuroko? Can't you see the lengths he'd go to just to anger me? Only idiots would like anyone like that."

"' _That guy is super hot, though... I'd let him rail me in a heartbeat_ '." Leaning back against Kagami, Himuro mimicked his friend's voice and doubled over laughing when the poor thing went red from one ear to the other.

"I was _drunk_! That doesn't count and I definitely don't think he's hot." Why would he? Stupid Aomine and his stupidly sexy voice, muscular body and smug eyes, always looking like he stepped out of a magazine. Kagami especially hated the way he'd put one hand on his waist and the other combing through his hair as he used his excess two centimetres to look down on him. Fucker.

Kagami really wanted to kiss Aomine's stupid mouth, but only if he'd stop talking.

"And I think Aomine-kun likes you too, Kagami-kun. He doesn't pick on anyone else the way he does you." Kuroko blinked as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That guy isn't capable of feeling basic human affection. He's a cyborg using someone's skin and his only purpose is to make my life a living hell."

Okay, _maybe_ he found Aomine sexy. A little. Well, who wouldn't!? That guy was like sin personified, like a damn forbidden fruit. There was a reason why his fanbase was almost as big as Kise. Still, Kagami would rather die than admit that. Aomine's personality was rotten and that was the only reason he hadn't fallen for the crazy good basketball player.

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that, Taiga. I think he just wants your attention," Himuro tapped his brother on the shoulder before getting up and stretching his limbs. "We have practice tomorrow, so I'm gonna log off. Gonna head to the shower and hit the hay."

Kuroko nodded in response. "Yes, me too. You should go to bed too, Kagami-kun. You have a game coming soon and we don't want you catching cold because you're trying to exact a revenge on Panther. You're a hundred years too early to go one-on-one against him."

"The lack of trust you have in me is shocking," Kagami mouthed after being mentally pummelled into the ground by his best friend and sworn brother. "Petition to make you two stop bullying me."

"But where is the fun in life if we can't pick on you, Kagami-kun?" With that as a parting words, Kuroko's avatar faded away along with Himuro, leaving only the redhead to sit on the rocky terrain while glaring daggers at the portrait of Panther on the screen.

"Guess I'll just get my gear fixed," With a huff, Kagami stood up and dragged his labrys, creating a massive cut on the ground as he did so. Since the nearest town was close, he decided to walk instead of teleporting. On the way there, he read the patch notes planned for tomorrow. "Boss rush. Shit, that's tomorrow!?"

The reward for beating the endless tower containing a hundred challenging bosses was a mouth-watering unique class weapon that looked downright badass and it made Kagami's fanboy heart drum. He couldn't join last month's because berserker class was on the ban list and his other characters were low level, but this time for sure, he'd clear it.

"I wonder if Kuroko's interested." He hummed before finally hoisting his weapon and putting it over his shoulder. Unlike him, his friends only played this game casually. It might be a hard sell for Kuroko, but he hoped he could get Himuro to join. Or maybe Kise.

The town was bustling with merchants as usual with other players chatting and playing around. Honestly, it made him feel like he was in a whole different world. Like a medieval fantasy one. Whenever he logged off, he always felt disoriented at how different everything was. It was also strange to not have his trusty labrys at his side, but he probably shouldn't start swinging that around in real life.

"Oh, it's you."

Low, seductive voice penetrated Kagami's eardrums and he jolted. He was standing in front of the blacksmith, that damned fighter behind him.

"Panther..." The redhead growled low. The fighter sported a dark blue jacket with fur on the collar part. It was open so everyone could see his defined muscles and chest. Even though this was just an avatar, Kagami found himself licking his lips. His short dark-blue hair fashioned a long fringe that stopped right above his eyes and his skin was a delicious bronze shade.

 _Oh god, I have a type._ He mentally facepalmed himself when he realised how closely Panther's avatar resembled that pain in the butt Aomine.

In the hope of grasping onto sanity, he asked. "Whaddya want? Came here to gloat?"

"Hah?" He walked past Kagami nonchalantly and took off his gloves. An extremely rare drop from one of the hardest monsters in game. Either he was a lucky bastard or a rich bastard. "Do you _want_ me to gloat?" Maybe it was Kagami reading too much into it, but Panther sounded tired. Maybe he had a long day and was just unwinding right now.

"What kind of question even is that?" He slammed his labrys on the desk to get it fixed up. With one magic spell from the blacksmith NPC, their weapons were as good as new.

Panther did nothing but let out a deep chuckle and allowed silence to overtake while they grabbed their equipment and finished off any remaining business they had.

"You going for the boss rush tomorrow, uh..." He looked above Kagami's head to look at his player name. "CrimsonClaw?"

Kagami waved it off. "Everyone calls me Tiger. And yeah, I am. You?"

"Tiger and Panther. Perfect!" Panther grinned and put an arm around the berserker's shoulders. "Come join me. You look like you can hold your own."

Having not expected the proposition, Kagami blinked, wide-eyed. "Me? Don't you have your own team?"

"I always clear 'em myself but this time, we're forced to have a group, so..." Panther shrugged. "And you were pretty impressive back then. Thought I'd at least try for someone who won't slow me down."

"Wait, don't we need a healer?" Kagami narrowed his eyes when he realised that both of them were front-liners. No way this would end well.

"Maybe. We'll stock up on potions, but we'll be fine. You won't die if you don't get hit."

Maybe it was Kagami's preference in men speaking but goddamn, Panther's confidence-not-cockiness was cool. In games like these, most strong players were nothing but arrogant dickheads like Aomine who just wanted to watch the world burn, but Panther seemed different. For someone so skilled, he came across as pretty friendly. He didn't even talk down to someone whose ass he whooped earlier.

"You're a full strength berserker?" Panther raised his eyebrows after appreciating Kagami's avatar's body. If Kagami was any sharper, he'd probably noticed that Panther was, indeed, checking him out.

"Yeah." The redhead nodded. It was nice to just tear through the battlefield as a mean of relieving stress.

"Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Add me as your friend. You'd better come, okay? We'll be the first in the server to clear it." Panther's grin brimmed with excitement as he held out his fist.

Kagami's brain couldn't catch up with what just happened. Did this Aomine-lookalike-who-is-actually-really-cool just asked him to partner up?

_Okay, Taiga. He's not an elitist douchebag, so no need to plan his demise. Actually, he's a pretty decent guy._

With a nod, Kagami bumped their fists together.

.

Today's match was between Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtic.

It had been a while since Kagami last faced Midorima and damn, the hype was unbelievable. Crowd clamoured for the two teams enough to set the entire damn stadium on fire, but among them, there was one very unhappy man.

"You'll face him soon enough, Aominecchi!" Kise put both of his hands on his friend's shoulder when he saw that the Cleveland's ace's scowl could make every kid within ten metres radius cry.

" _If_ he wins. Midorima hasn't been slacking." With his arms crossed, he shrugged off Kise's hands and tapped his foot restlessly against the ground.

"You sure are very concerned for him. Why don't you bring the same level of enthusiasm into practice?" Akashi was as calm as ever, an amused smile on his lips.

"Practice is boring. I like playing in real games."

"Is that another way of saying 'I only like playing against Kagami'? Because it surely sounds like it." Himuro who had both his arms crossed and rested on the seat in front of him jabbed at Aomine who quickly shoved the guy. Kise started laughing and Murasakibara who was sitting next to Himuro even snorted a little.

"Fuck off. I don't sound like that." The dark-skinned male scowled at the teasing and felt his face heating up a little. He couldn't help but loving the rush that occured when he occupied the same court as the redhead.

"We know how much you care about him, Aomine-kun. Don't try to lie to us." Kuroko added with his voice full of mirth.

To this day, the professional basketball world didn't know how the star player from the current eight powerhouse teams got along so well, but those who looked at them under a magnifying glass knew exactly why. They were just old friends from high school who happened to cross path on the court and pursued the same dream. They might have been picked up by different teams, but that didn't change the fact that they were tight-knit friends.

Well, maybe except for Aomine and Kagami. The former was sizzling hot oil and the latter was warm water. Whenever they were together, everyone had to take care not to get into the crossfire.

"Hey, hey!" Kise who sat on the aisle waved at the camera from a TV channel that happened to spot the colourful group sitting together as per usual. Everyone else was pretty happy letting the chirpy blond handle the media with the occasional contribution from the charismatic Akashi. It was a well-known fact to stay away from Aomine due to his explosive personality and Murasakibara for his aloofness.

"Shit, what're you doing, loser?" Aomine gritted his teeth at Kagami's current performance. Or rather, Midorima's stellar one. That guy was annoyingly relentless today. His team started working really well around him too which only gave Bulls harder time.

"My, my." Himuro widened his eyes slightly when he saw the match, then glanced at Aomine like everyone was doing. Even though he wasn't on the court, he looked damn nervous and it was absolutely hilarious.

Everyone knew how big of a crush the Cleveland ace had for the Bulls' ace.

And they also knew how much Kagami hated Aomine's guts but attracted to everything else about him.

The thing was, Aomine didn't know to not be an ass to people he actually liked. It was like a weird defense mechanism and it was frustrating. Everyone had put in some money on the table to see if they'd actually get together or not. So far, Kuroko, Akashi and Kise said yes. The rest said maybe, when hell froze over.

"Dammit, you suck!" Aomine slammed his hand against the backrest of the thankfully empty seat in front of him.

"Sometimes I wonder if you are just a Bulls spy, the way you root against all of us when it comes time for us to play against them." Kuroko commented flatly.

"Shut it, Tetsu. I just wanna beat Kagami's ass into the ground."

Somewhere near the aisle which was next to Aomine, Kise giggled mischievously. "I'm sure you do. Bet you wanna do way more than that too."

"Kise, I will shove my fist up your ass if you don't shut the fuck up."

The blond opened his mouth to say 'do that to Kagamicchi instead' but at the combined glares of Kuroko and Akashi, he quickly snapped it shut. A fight was the last thing they wanted to do in front of so many cameras.

Even though it wasn't pretty, Bulls did end up bagging the victory. It was only by a hairbreadth. The final set was wild and it got everyone on the edge of their seats. Boston looked extremely dominant and would be a force to be reckoned with next time.

"What kinda play was that? You're so bad."

"Aomine, stop picking a fight with me right after my match." Kagami seethed, his temper already starting to boil at the condescending words.

"Not picking a fight. Just telling the truth," The dark-skinned male shrugged with a proud smirk that Kagami wanted to punch and then kiss. But mostly punch, "If that keeps up, We're gonna wipe the floor with you next match."

" _We_? The great, almighty Aomine using 'we'? Am I dreaming?" Mocking the sentence, Kagami pinched his arm. While he was glad that this asshole learned how to cooperate with his teammates, he also wished that Aomine would fix that rotten attitude.

"Just gotta show you that Cavaliers' way better than Bulls so I can kick your ass and humiliate you in front of everyone in more than one way." Aomine laughed in that infuriating, condescending tone of his and Kagami had to literally stop himself from yelling.

"You _asshole_!" Well. He yelled anyway, an index finger pointing at the taller male. "Why can't you just stop talking for two seconds. Oh my god, I can't _stand_ you."

Aomine clearly enjoyed the reaction. With a satisfied smile, he leaned towards Kagami, grabbed him by the wrist and breathed into his ear, "Because you're special, Taiga," That made Kagami freeze. His face suddenly turned into the same shade as his hair. "A special case of _bad_ at basketball."

_Snap._

That must've been all his veins snapping.

With brute force that would made any berserker class proud, Kagami shoved Aomine away, his teeth grinding against each other, and he grabbed the asshole by the collar. "I. Hate. You. Why don't you leave me alone if you think I'm so bad?"

Putting one finger in his ear, Aomine smirked triumphantly. "But it's fun, kicking a helpless whelp. Besides—"

"Okay, stop right there, Daiki." A team member who was a good ten centimetres taller than him hooked his arms under the ace's shoulder and peeled the two rivals apart.

"Taiga, Taiga. Deep breaths." The Bulls captain also did the same to their ace.

"I'm gonna fuck you up, asshole!" Kagami let out one last challenge before he was dragged around the corner.

"Put up a good fight at least, Bakagami!" Even after all that, Aomine still managed to sound condescending.

"Daiki, you can afford to be nicer to Taiga," His captain shook his head exasperatedly. "You function like a decent human being with everyone else, but why are you always such a dick to him?"

Aomine smiled at the taller male and glanced at the corner where Kagami disappeared to. "But it's fun, riling him up. Did you see how his entire face flares up when he's angry?" _It's seriously cute... I wanna eat him up._

"You've got a bad personality, Daiki." The rest of the team shook their heads with a fond smile.

.

By the time Kagami arrived home, he practically hopped in front of his immersive gaming headset straightaway. He booted up the MMORPG he was playing yesterday, turned on the gadget and off to the other world he went.

_"Welcome back, CrimsonClaw."_

For a moment, there was nothing but black vortex underneath him. The disorientation always hit first, so the redhead shut his eyes. He waited a few seconds before opening them back up where he immediately saw the bustling town square where he logged off yesterday.

"You're late, Tiger," Panther lounged on the bench nearby while flicking through his inventory and dumping a few items on the ground. "Use these."

"Sorry, I had to deal with some bullshit earlier. My head is still all over the place thanks to some asshole." The berserker crouched to inspect the items, then his eyes went wide open. "Holy crap. This is..."

"Yep. The super rare Vampiric Halberd, Cloak of Thousand Leeches and Terra Pauldron. I got them a few months ago and since I don't play berserker class, thought you can use them."

"No way, dude! That's way cool!" Kagami looked up at Panther who had his chest puffed out in pride and hands on his waist. Good to know that this hottie was actually a huge nerd. It was cute, honestly.

_Aomine without the things that make him Aomine? Hell yeah._

"Gear up and we're going. Lifesteal gear should be enough healing if you do the big numbers. I'll soak up the other damage, 'kay?" Panther winked in all his confident glory and oh god, it did things to Kagami.

With that as a good plan, they headed to the entrance of the Endless Tower. It was made entirely of dark, worn concrete that showed some cracks. Blackened dead trees surrounded the barren area and from here, the sky was bleeding red and the crimson moon was covered with thick, charcoal grey cloud.

This was just a game, but Kagami still hated all things horror. He jolted a little at the sight, then shuddered when the cold wind whipped past him.

A warm hand settled on his shoulder, and when he turned to the side, Panther looked at him with a pair of kind yet slightly mischievous eyes. It was a good look on him. "Cold feet, Tiger? Want me to hold your hand?" As if to emphasise his point, Panther brushed the bare part of his fingers against Kagami's.

"Don't make fun of me! I'm just... not good with things like this." The redhead glowered.

"I think it's cute." Panther idly said before grabbing Kagami's hand and dragging him towards the entrance.

Was Kagami about to crush on some stranger online? Maybe. This guy could be some creep who lived in his mum's basement in real life, but speaking to him like that with Aomine's looks and voice... He shuddered. It was seriously dangerous. The entire trek there, Kagami couldn't stop staring at their hands that were interlocked together and his heart drummed like some ten years old holding hands with his crush.

_Okay, this is so gay even for my standard. But he's just so damn hot._

"Ready or not, here we go!" Panther pushed the gate and in they went. The stone entrance closed with a menacing drag and Kagami was practically latching onto Panther as if hanging on for dear life.

It was scary outside and even scarier inside.

"You'll be fine, Tiger," The dark-skinned fighter stroke Kagami's hair almost teasingly, but that only comforted the redhead and made his heart pound like crazy. Too bad he couldn't feel sensation in this virtual world because it'd be so nice getting petted by this Aomine lookalike. "C'mon, the first boss is the easiest. Get your blood pumping and we'll kick some ass!"

For the next fifteen minutes, Kagami only gawked. Panther was good. No, he was bloody _amazing_.

Fighter was the tankiest class in game, but this guy was speedy like a damn assassin. He initially thought it must've been his investment in agility stats, but no, there was something so fluid and _real_ about his movement. Yes, real-life physical ability translated to the game, so this guy must be from the track team or something. His reflex was just out of this world.

"You a real life panther or something?" Kagami said after they cleared the tenth floor.

That made Panther throw his head back and laugh. It was such a nice sound, one that Aomine always cracked whenever he saw or heard something hilarious and Kagami felt his face heating up again. Now, he was convinced that Panther was just a better version of Aomine.

"Then you must be a bear with how much strength you pack in every attack. I dunno, some weird fusion of bear and rabbit because holy shit, how can you even jump so high?" There was a longing smile on Panther's face that made Kagami frown a little. He didn't have to wonder for long because the guy turned his head around and sheepishly said, "Reminds me of someone I like, in real life. He's a ridiculous jumper too."

"He... oh. You're gay, Panther?" His heart was doing weird things right now.

"Nah, I'm fully straight, but... I guess that guy's an exception. I just really like him."

"Someone you like enough, you ignore your sexuality? He must be a great guy." _Of course he's already interested in someone else,_ Kagami cursed. Oh well, not like he crushed on Panther that hard yet, so this was okay. It should be, anyway. He'd deal with it.

After they cleared the twenty fifth floor with relative ease, they entered an area engulfed in flame. Panther looked as relaxed as ever. "So, who ruined your day?"

"Huh?" Upon remembering he mentioned what a bad day he had, Kagami scowled. "There's this guy in my sports team. He's a great player, but he's so cocky, snooty and he always gets in my face. I feel like his only desire in life is to ruin my day. I hate him so much."

"Oh man, one of those, huh?" Panther grinned and slapped Kagami on the back. "Just ignore him, yeah? Someone so good-looking like you shouldn't frown so much. Well, at least your in-game character is anyway. You can be some fat old man for all I know. Ah well, at least you'll be a fat old man with a sexy voice."

"Rude!" Kagami couldn't help but laugh, warmth returning to his cheeks once more. It was true that appearance could be drastically altered here, but not voice.

Panther was too charming for his own good.

Within a couple of hours, they managed to conquer 90 floors that were supposed to be hard, but Panther made everything seem easy. Not only did he soak up all the damage, he avoided most of them too, so he didn't need to use too much potion. He drew the enemy's attention while smartly using all his mitigation skills, damaging when he saw an opening. It allowed Kagami to go wild with slashing his halberd and together, they steamrolled through the entire place.

"How the hell are you so good, dude?" They fist-bumped after they cleared the 95th floor. Just five more to go.

"It helps that physical capabilities translate here," Panther shrugged with a proud grin. "I'm an athlete, so I've got the endurance."

"No shit! What sport do you play?" Kagami laughed while they took a bit of a break.

"B ball."

Hearing that, Kagami practically leaped. "Bullshit. We should play sometimes. You live in America too, right?"

Panther's grin couldn't get any brighter, but contrary to the excitement he displayed, he shook his head. "Yeah, I live in America. But I'd have to refuse that offer, buddy."

Slumping his shoulders, Kagami sat back down. "Why? You scared of getting your ass beat? Don't worry, I won't think any less of you."

"Heh," Panther chuckled, eyes twinkling with mirth. "If anything, _you_ 're the one who's going down. But no, I... well, I don't like playing ball with strangers."

"...What?" Kagami frowned.

"Personal reason," The fighter stood up and dusted his pants. "C'mon, that's enough rest. Let's get going!"

It took them around an hour to finally get to the last floor. The boss was some abomination with disgusting tentacles growing from its back. They were black, slimy and Kagami was glad that he couldn't smell anything because if he could, he'd probably gag. It was a towering monstrosity of over four metres. It stood on its two feet with horns jutting out of its head.

"Well," Panther nudged the very nervous Kagami. "I've actually seen enough hentai to see where this will go."

"Bastard, don't joke around like that. I don't want anyone to get tentacled any time soon." Said Kagami, taking his weapon out and saw light glowing around Panther's feet.

That was a move signature to fighters. In exchange of 90% of their mobility, they would only receive 10% damage from hostiles. Seeing Panther move with heavy footsteps like everything was in slow motion was pretty sexy. He had such a commanding aura around him that screamed danger.

The boss monster was quick to tunnel vision Panther and that gave Kagami the perfect opening to deal a massive damage from its back. Its purple blood splattered against the ground, and from it, noxious slimes appeared and jumped at Kagami.

"Shit!" He dodged out of the way, then ran around towards the tank where Panther stood at the ready. He moved into stance while taking blow after blow from the opponent. He couldn't exactly run, but this was what he was here for. The smaller monsters quickly changed target when they saw Panther's intimidating presence

"Nice one, Tiger," He grinned when the berserker quickly swung his halberd in a circular motion. It sliced through the enemies, but went through Panther thanks to the no-friendly-fire feature. "I'll handle these. Go!"

With a battle cry, Kagami circled back towards the boss's tentacle-covered back and began slashing wildly at it, perhaps a little too excessively.

"Stupid, don't do too much!" Panther yelled out the moment the boss shifted its attention on the berserker. With all his skills on cooldown, Panther couldn't do anything but kept jabbing at it in hope of getting its attention.

No such luck. It swung one large slimy tentacle and Kagami's whole world turned on its tail.

"Oh my god," He whimpered the moment his halberd fell with a loud clatter. Two other gross, slippery appendages poked at him and Kagami wanted to cry because this was how those hentai usually went, right? "Panther, Stop gawking and cut those things off!"

The sight of Kagami being wrapped in writhing tentacles was too much for poor Panther whose brain immediately short-circuited. The redhead was trying his best to struggle but his entire arms were bound and one tentacle wrapped itself between his leg and reached to his shoulder.

"...Wow. I have ascended." He simply mouthed, pants slowly getting tighter by the second.

" _Panther_ , I will fucking kill you, bastard! Cut these—" Kagami didn't get to finish his sentence because a tentacle was shoved into his mouth. The programming must've made it so that players couldn't speak when something was in their mouths.

"Wow. _Wow,_ " Panther stood there, jaw dropping to the ground. "I didn't know this game is so damn X-rated. What were the devs thinking?"

It was only when Kagami's HP reached zero that Panther snapped out of it.

"Shit. I fucked up," He immediately switched off his tank mode and quickly dodged the incoming attack. "How long 'til respawn!?"

"Sixty seconds, pervert!" Kagami's voice rang in his head. His body already disappeared from the ground.

"My bad," Panther rolled on the ground to avoid a tentacle slam, then dashed the other way to not get hit by a fist. "It's just, you look like that guy I'm crushing hardcore on."

"Huh?" Kagami blinked. He couldn't move, but he was there overlooking the fight. The fighter was so damn agile, dashing all over the place like that.

"Wild red hair. Muscles," Panther managed to flank the monster and began pummelling it with his skill until it staggered. "Kinda imagined him in your shoes. That was kinky as fuck."

Tugging on a fringe to inspect his hair colour that was definitely not dual-toned, he hummed. "Any reason why you haven't confessed? Is he straight or are you just that ugly?"

"I'm god's handcrafted masterpiece, thank you very much. If you see me in real life, you'll probably pop a boner right away."

Kagami could think of someone like that. Too bad his personality was created by the devil himself.

Eventually, the redhead rematerialised. From there on, the fight went smoothly. They had 99 floors to build teamwork and trust. At this point, they understood the jist of how each other operated.

"Clear!" Panther fist-bumped Kagami and scrolled past the list of players who had completed the tower. "We're third. It's because you came late."

"Hey, not my fault I got stuck in practice." As they exited the menacing and creepy tower, they split up the amazing loot that would net them a lot of in-game cash.

"Yo, Tiger," Panther called out as his fingers danced across the floating user interface. Looked like he was sorting his inventory. "Lemme fuck you."

...What?

"The roleplay channel. Let's go."

"Wait, wait, wait," Kagami grabbed Panther's wrist, stopping him on his track. " _What_!?"

"The roleplay channel? C'mon, I'd love to bend you over and fuck you right here but in the public channels, we don't have dicks, assholes or pussies. Or nipples for that matters."

This was a proposition Kagami would have never imagined. Virtual sex. With a stranger who looked like Aomine.

"This isn't the real world. Can you even _feel_ anything?"

"'Course not. I'll be jerking off while my avatar fucks you. It's all about the sight and sound, y'know?" The bastard took advantage of his role as a group leader and transported both of them into a roleplay channel filled with big-boobed girls and ridiculously muscular guys.

Panther didn't even try to hide how much he was oggling those jiggling boobs. "This is heaven," He whistled while still dragging Kagami. "I wish I could feel all those tits."

"Then why the hell am I here?" Kagami grumbled in distaste. Sure, those things were round, squishy and nice. He understood their charm even though he was as gay as they came.

"'Cause you remind me of that guy," Panther muttered softly, blushing. "Anyway, just let me fuck you. You can just close your eyes or something."

"Wait, if you're so hot, why can't you seduce that guy? Why the hell are you asking a lookalike?"

"It's different!" The fighter turned around and kicked the ground in frustration. "I... well, I'm not good at that sort of stuff. I always end up hurting him even though I just wanna be nice to him," He sighed. "I'm pretty sure he hates me. So yeah, I've got no chance with him."

Panther looked legitimately defeated, it made Kagami feel bad. So, he cupped the fighter's cheek and smiled. "Nah. I don't think anyone can hate someone like you. You're a cool dude, you know?"

And boy did Panther look ecstatic to hear it. His eyes glowed as he grasped Kagami's wrist. "Thanks. I know it's only a game avatar, but you really look like him."

Kagami was about to say 'this is just how I look like', but Panther already entered the hotel where lots of avatars were making out. The public display made the redhead a bit uneasy, but thank god his company decided not to linger. They went up the stairs and went into the nearest unoccupied room.

"Uh, so, what do we do? Is there anything you're into or—" Kagami practically yelped when Panther slammed him against the wall and began kissing him. Strange how there was no sensation but he could almost taste Panther's spicy breath. Kagami reflexively opened his mouth and regretted not locking his room.

"Just get naked already." Panther's stormy blue eyes stared right into his hazel ones and Kagami melted.

"I'm," He swallowed thickly. This was like looking straight into Aomine's eyes and perhaps this would be how the bastard acted during sex too. Suddenly, Kagami's libido skyrocketed. "Wait, I'm gonna get my dildo."

"No way. You're into anal masturbation?" Panther's eyes widened, but Kagami didn't even see it because he already ripped his headset off and stumbled towards his nightstand to grab the blue silicone dildo that was quite big. He didn't forget the lube too.

He would never admit that he'd been wanting to get drilled by Aomine in a one night stand. If the guy wasn't so full of himself, maybe he would hint at it, but if he heard that Kagami found him hot, then he'd never live it down. If only his attitude was more tolerable... if only Aomine was more like Panther. Self-assured, snarky, passionate. Bonus point if he played games and Kagami could nerd out with him.

If only.

Well, he supposed that would make Aomine too perfect.

Kagami returned to Panther already undressed. His body was something to be appreciated even though it wasn't real. Whatever. The redhead liked this Aomine-not-Aomine and decided he'd have a shot at virtual sex.

.

Aomine had been staring at the wall for a good ten minutes now. He was wearing his Cleveland jacket and a ball in his hand, but he didn't move or speak. Actually, his teammates started to think that maybe their ace stopped breathing.

"Daiki! Daiki!" Two people grabbed him and shook him violently. "C'mon, man. We have our match in a few minutes, snap out of it!"

However, the blunette only said a low, idle 'ehh' in response and let himself be dragged towards the stadium. It didn't look like their ace was going to snap out of it any time soon, though. Instead, Aomine was so spaced out, he ended up bumping into rock hard muscles.

"Look ahead, asshole." Were Kagami's sharp words.

Instead of spitting an equally hurtful rebuttal, Aomine just looked up at the redhead, stared at him and then looked back at the ground. His teammates who were ready to separate the two at this point only stared as the blunette walked away without so much as a parting word.

"...Is he okay?" Kagami quirked an eyebrow.

"We... don't know. Actually, we don't think so." They then left while exchanging a worried, "oh my god, he didn't talk shit about Taiga."

In actuality, Aomine's head was so full of the lewd memory of last night. Tiger's body was almost like a mirror to Kagami's. Taut muscles, perfectly sculpted pecs and abs... and seeing him moan like that, fingers clenching the bedsheet was a memory too surreal. Just thinking about it was enough to make him hard.

He should feel bad for using Tiger's avatar as a mean of getting into Kagami's pants, but he really wasn't. In fact, he'd do it all over again. Hell, he already accepted that his feelings were fruitless anyway. Maybe he'd just settle with this random stranger on the internet to live his wildest fantasy.

.

"Fuck. Fuck! Panther... Oh god, Panther!" Even though he couldn't feel anything through the game, he certainly had his dildo up his ass right now. It didn't take too much to imagine Panther's cock slamming into him, especially when the man was right on top of him.

It was after another PVP session that was becoming such a common occurrence. It was always so much fun to play with and against this crazy, catlike fighter.

Their chests rose up and down in tandem as they finished their nth sex session that never got old. Panther was already up on his feet after a few minutes to sort out his messy inventory and dumping a few items he didn't need. This guy sure had stamina. But of course, that was a given since he was a basketball player too.

"You're awfully desperate lately, Tiger. Not that I dislike how slutty you are, but y'know." As he chuckled, his stupidly perfect back muscles rolled.

"I'm not slutty!" He quickly denied before deflating back into the bed. Yeah, okay. Maybe he had been a little slutty. "It's just... do you remember the asshole I told you about?"

Panther brushed his bangs back and turned towards Tiger. "The one who kept bullying you?"

That sight made Tiger's heart pound loudly, but he quickly looked away. "Yeah. He stopped."

"...And... isn't that... good?" The taller tilted his head sideways in uncertainty.

"It was. But..." Kagami sighed. "I dunno. It feels kinda weird to not have him insulting me at every corner."

"Dude, that's some fucked up Stockholm syndrome."

Kagami rolled his eyes, but amused, at Panther's wittiness. "It's like he lost interest in me. I didn't know that it'd hurt this much to be ignored, y'know?"

"What the hell is your relationship, seriously?"

"Fuck if I know. Anyway, I was happy for the first few days, but after that... urgh. He refuses to even look at me. Whenever we walk into each other, he'd just immediately turn away. When I rock up to lunch with our mutual friends, he always leaves first." The redhead curled his lips. Deep down, he _did_ enjoy his back and forth with Aomine, it looked like. They got in his skin, but that cocky confidence was pretty damn sexy. He felt kinda stupid now.

"He probably feels guilty. Don't get fazed," Panther slid back into the bed and landed a kiss on Tiger's lips. It was one that was swiftly returned with passion. "Don't tell me you're crushing on him."

Silence.

Then Tiger's face combusted into red.

"Holy shit. You are."

"S-shut up! It's not like that, okay? We're... well, we're actually friends. At least I think of him as one. We're pretty close in our own way, so for him to not say a single word to me for three fucking weeks is... well, demoralising," Kagami then tightened his arms around Panther's back and pulled him closer for another kiss. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this. You make me feel like we've known each other for years."

"Right?" Panther grinned boyishly.

"That's because you have..." Unbeknownst to both boys, two pairs of ears were on the door to their room. Sure enough, it was the flame wizard Satsuki and healer Kuroko. They met completely by accident one day during an event and immediately recognised each other. Through Satsuki, Kuroko found out that Panther was Aomine.

"Tetsu-kun... what should we do? They're both so stupid..." Satsuki looked like she was about to cry in embarrassment.

"I apologise that I didn't educate Kagami-kun better in the art of emotion."

"No, no. _I_ should be the one apologising," She quickly shook her head and ripped her ear away from the door the moment they realised that those stupid boys in the topic were about to have round two. "Should we tell them?"

"Tell them?" Himuro was standing near the stairs with an amused expression. "Where's the fun in that? Nah, I say just leave them be. Let's see how long it'll take them to figure it out on their own."

"Ah, yes. It would be fascinating to see, indeed." Kuroko nodded and in turn, Satsuki agreed. All three of them then left the roleplay channel together while betting money on when The Day would finally arrive.


End file.
